by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

by Sarah Lynch, Special for USA TODAY

CAIRO â?? Three years ago Egyptians rose up against a repressive regime and called for dignity, social justice and freedom. They're still waiting.

"Egypt has witnessed a series of damaging blows to human rights and state violence on an unprecedented scale over the last seven months," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International.

"Repressive legislation has been introduced making it easier for the government to silence its critics and crack down on protests," he said. "Security forces have been given free rein to act above the law and with no prospect of being held to account for abuses."

Terrorist violence is also still with Egypt. On Friday, Cairo was hit with four bomb attacks targeting police stations that killed six people.The explosions were the deadliest in the capital since the Egyptian military took over the country in August following massive protests against the elected government of Mohamed Morsi.

The election of Morsi in June 2012 represented the first free election in Egypt's history and swept aside decades of dictatorship. But in the summer of last year, millions took to the streets again to demand Morsi's ouster for putting his edicts above judicial review and for backing a new constitution that opened the door to stringent Islamic law.

Today, press and assembly freedoms remain restricted. The major political organization that won the first free elections in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, is now considered a terrorist group, its leaders behind bars. Arrests of those voicing political opposition are widespread.

Yet that doesn't seem to bother many Egyptians.

"People are now concerned about stability, security," said Said Sadek, a political sociologist in Cairo. "They hate the Muslim Brotherhood. They want their Fridays back so they can enjoy their weekends. And they want to make sure that if their children go to school, nothing happens to them."

In three years Egypt has seen much upheaval. After longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak was ousted in early 2011, an army council took charge of the country. Then a parliament was elected, and later dissolved. Morsi's presidency lasted only a year. In July he too was overthrown, ushering in an interim government with the army chief believed to be ruling behind the scenes.

Over the past six months â?? since last summer's widely supported overthrow led by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi â?? the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of Morsi have continued to protest in Egypt's streets against the nation's new leaders.

Many Egyptians are fed up with the political unrest, which since 2011 has led to increased crime, continuing militant attacks on government posts and economic strife.

Many are also unhappy with the Muslim Brotherhood, and a seemingly large sector of Egypt's society has gotten behind the nation's army chief and backs what human rights groups describe as repressive government measures.

"The police are cleaning up the country," said Mohammed Karim, who owns a shop that sells trinkets to tourists on a road leading to Tahrir Square, the heart of the three-year uprising against Mubarak. "There are a lot of people in jail because they are trouble-makers and trying to make a mess."

As Karim spoke, a car drove by carrying passengers dancing to a popular song that praises Sisi.

Many hail Sisi for â?? in their eyes â?? preventing civil war when he took control of the country last summer after millions took to the streets to protest Morsi's rule.

Last week, Egyptians who hit the polls overwhelmingly supported a proposed new constitution drafted at Sisi's direction that gives women, children and minorities more rights compared to previous constitutions. Still, experts on the charter say there is nothing in the document to make sure those and other human rights are protected.

Many also say he saved Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood, which critics accused of being theocratic and dictatorial while in power.

Like the government, many Egyptians consider the Brotherhood a terrorist group and are glad its leaders and members are now imprisoned.

"The army is trying to do anything it can to help the people," said Ahmed Morsi, an accountant, 25, expressing regret that he has the same last name as the ousted leader.

"The army and police should be even stronger than they are now," Morsi, the accountant, said. "Because all the Muslim Brotherhood wants to do is get back in power."

Yet there are those who insist the country has been overtaken by a military coup, and people are fooling themselves if they think the military will be better than Morsi.,

Essam Haz, 29, who boycotted the constitutional vote, waved four fingers in the air in a gesture signifying solidarity with supporters of the Brotherhood and ousted president Morsi.

"I'm pro Rabaa," Haz said, referring to a Brotherhood-led protest camp that was violently plowed down by security forces last August after Morsi was ousted. "There's no real democracy."

It's true that not only Muslim Brotherhood figures are being arrested. The crackdown seems to extend to any opposition movements. A restrictive protest law curbs the right to free assembly. Journalists have been imprisoned without convictions and liberal activists are being arrested for voicing dissent.

Kholoud Saber, deputy director of the Cairo-based Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, said broad public acceptance of repressive measures indicates a societal problem. She attributes the acceptance to widely disseminated government claims that the nation is at risk and is trying to fight terrorism.

"This kind of political propaganda made most Egyptians now not mind at all that authorities are arresting people or putting limitations on freedom of expression," she said.

Not all Egyptians, however, are fans of Egypt's authorities or are unbothered by the government crackdown.

For months, the Muslim Brotherhood has persisted in its anti-government campaign, continuing to call for protests in the streets and declaring that the nation's current leaders are illegitimate.

And some of Egypt's liberals activists have grown increasingly outraged after initially supporting the coup that ousted Morsi.

The April 6 Youth Movement, a key group in the protests against Mubarak, is among those calling for anti-government demonstrations this weekend on the uprising's third anniversary. Two of the group's prominent activists have been thrown in jail and several of its members have been arrested for distributing fliers calling for demonstrations.

"I don't think everyone is just going to shut up and go home," said Michele Dunne, a senior associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in Washington, D.C. "This is a society that's become mobilized."

But some analysts said many people are suffering protest fatigue and that even if there are pockets of dissent, large-scale anti-government protests at this stage would be difficult to organize.